Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 3 (of 4)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 3 (of 4)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- 1760-1789; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
On the 3rd died Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose character I
have given at large before. His early life had shown his versatility;
his latter time, his ambition; but hypocrisy not being parts, he rose
in the Church without ever making a figure in the State.[124] Dr.
Frederic Cornwallis, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, a prelate
of inconsiderable talents, but a most amiable, gentle, and humane
man,[125] was preferred to the primacy by the Duke of Grafton, who
had a friendship for the Bishop’s nephew, Earl Cornwallis. Terrick of
London, the most time-serving of the clergy, was sorely disappointed in
missing the first mitre of England.
On the 9th came on at Guilford the trial of a soldier for the murder
of young Allen, in St. George’s Fields. Wilkes, impatient to signalize
himself, and by his presence to excite a tumult, procured to be
subpœnaed as a witness; though it was notorious that, being in prison
at the time, he could have distinguished nothing from his window. The
real murderer had been conveyed away by the Government, and the man
tried not being the true criminal, was acquitted. No bill was found
against the commanding officer of the party; and Wilkes returned to his
gaol without having occasioned any disturbance.
In the midst of these disorders arrived Christian the Seventh, King of
Denmark, his Majesty’s brother-in-law. This young Prince had left his
dominions some months before, intending to visit the chief nations of
Europe; and having great curiosity to see England, had proposed this
visit. The English Monarch, who had no taste for show or amusements,
and who every day sank more and more into privacy and lifeless
solitude, had waived the offer on pretence of the national confusions;
but Christian, who had both the obstinacy and caprices of youth and
royalty, had persisted, and came. Not a single nobleman--not a single
equipage was sent on the road to receive, escort, or convey the Danish
King. He arrived at St. James’s in a hired carriage. The only attention
paid to him was, that an apartment was new furnished, gilt plate
brought from the Tower, and an expensive table kept for him and his
suite. Neither the King nor Queen were at St. James’s to receive him;
and the King even arrived there to his levee an hour later than usual.
He then saw his Ministers; and the King of Denmark was at dinner before
King George would admit Lord Hertford, his own Lord Chamberlain, who
brought a message from the Dane, who had had the attention of ordering
his own lords to wait on the King at his levee. It is scarce to be
credited that though Christian was in his palace, he neither went to
him nor received him there, but coldly sent him word he would see him
at the Queen’s palace at half-an-hour after five. When common decency
was thus neglected, it is not wonderful that national interest was
forgotten. Christian, at that time, was a pensioner of France, and it
imported us to win him out of their hands. When he afterwards went to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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